Hi, everyone! It’s me again. How are you? I haven’t been posting as much as I had planned. The holiday season kept me busy with work and social events so I didn’t have enough time to sit down and write a blog post.

… Well, that and because my husband and I were doing a marathon on The 100. I’ve been a fan of the series since season 1 but my husband just recently got into it. I know I should have been blogging but I just couldn’t help it.

Calling all The 100 fans in the book blog community – where you at?

Anyway, I’m back now with this week’s Top 5 Wednesday. This week’s theme is ‘Most Anticipated 2019 Releases’. Honestly, I’m not the type who keeps tabs on new releases so I’ve never really had to make this kind of list – until now, that is. I enjoyed the searching for books though.

It made me curious about how other people find books to add to their TBR. Do you guys look for book reviews first or do you hit the bookstore to find an interesting book? Tell me your ways in the comments below…

Top 5 Most Anticipated 2019 Releases

I’m going to be very honest. Before coming across this T5W theme, I didn’t have a list of my most anticipated titles. 2018 wasn’t a good reading year for me and I didn’t find any book in a series that got me excited enough to make a list of most anticipated releases.

I did some digging and finally found some titles that I definitely want to pick up in the coming year. And here they are:

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Black Leopard Red Wolf by Marlon James

Tracker is known far and wide for his skills as a hunter: “He has a nose,” people say. Engaged to track down a mysterious boy who disappeared three years earlier, Tracker breaks his own rule of always working alone when he finds himself part of a group that comes together to search for the boy. The band is a hodgepodge, full of unusual characters with secrets of their own, including a shape-shifting man-animal known as Leopard.

As Tracker follows the boy’s scent–from one ancient city to another; into dense forests and across deep rivers–he and the band are set upon by creatures intent on destroying them. As he struggles to survive, Tracker starts to wonder: Who, really, is this boy? Why has he been missing for so long? Why do so many people want to keep Tracker from finding him? And perhaps the most important questions of all: Who is telling the truth, and who is lying? – Goodreads

The cover made me give a second look. And after reading the blurb, I just knew I had to add this to my list. I love a good hunt and come on, shape-shifters? Exactly my cup of tea.

I’m not familiar with the author but it seems that the internet loves his book so I have high expectations for this one.

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The Age of Light by Whitney Scharer

A captivating debut about Vogue model turned renowned photographer Lee Miller, and her passionate affair with the artist Man Ray in 1930s Paris.

“I’d rather take a picture than be one,” says Lee Miller after she arrives in Paris in 1929. Yearning for a different life and haunted by her past, Lee leaves behind a successful modeling career to pursue her dream of being an artist. She catches the eye of the famous Surrealist Man Ray, and though he wants to use her only as a model, Lee convinces him to teach her photography as well. Man Ray is an egotistical, charismatic force, and their personal and professional lives become intimately entwined as the lines between maker and muse begin to blur.

Lee’s story unfolds against the sumptuous backdrop of bohemian Paris, with nights spent at smoky cabarets, opium dens, and wild parties, and days spent working with Man Ray to discover radical new photography techniques. But as Lee begins to find success as an artist in her own right, Man Ray’s jealousy spirals out of control, and soon their mutual betrayals threaten to destroy them both. – Goodreads

Many people don’t know this about me but I have a great passion for film photography (or just photography in general) so this book is definitely my cup of tea.

I love the setting – bohemian Paris, and the fact that this book is all about discovering the art of photography sealed the deal for me.

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Feast Your Eyes by Myla Goldberg

Feast Your Eyes, framed as the catalog notes from a photography show at the Museum of Modern Art, tells the life story of Lillian Preston: “America’s Worst Mother, America’s Bravest Mother, America’s Worst Photographer, or America’s Greatest Photographer, depending on who was talking.” After discovering photography as a teenager through her high school’s photo club, Lillian rejects her parents’ expectations of college and marriage and moves to New York City in 1955. When a small gallery exhibits partially nude photographs of Lillian and her daughter Samantha, Lillian is arrested, thrust into the national spotlight, and targeted with an obscenity charge. Mother and daughter’s sudden notoriety changes the course of both of their lives and especially Lillian’s career as she continues a life-long quest for artistic legitimacy and recognition. – Goodreads

Again, another book centered around photography. When I was making this list, I decided to look for titles that have something to do with my passions – one of them being photography, as you’ve read earlier. It’s no surprise that this book will find its way to my list.

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Conviction by Denise Mina

It’s just a normal morning for Anna McDonald. Gym kits, packed lunches, getting everyone up and ready. Until she opens the front door to her best friend, Estelle. Anna turns to see her own husband at the top of the stairs, suitcase in hand. They’re leaving together and they’re taking Anna’s two daughters with them.

Left alone in the big, dark house, Anna can’t think, she can’t take it in. With her safe, predictable world shattered, she distracts herself with a story: a true-crime podcast. There’s a sunken yacht in the Mediterranean, multiple murders and a hint of power and corruption. Then Anna realizes she knew one of the victims in another life. She is convinced she knows what happened. Her past, so carefully hidden until now, will no longer stay silent.

This is a murder she can’t ignore, and she throws herself into investigating the case. But little does she know, her past and present lives are about to collide, sending everything she has worked so hard to achieve into freefall. – Goodreads

The fact that this story took a turn because of a true-crime podcast made me giggle. I love love love true-crime podcasts and it is perhaps one of the reasons why I wanted to pick this book up next year. The fact that the story revolves around a sunken ship made me excited about it too. I was reminded of how much I liked The Woman In Cabin 10.

Paper Son by S.J. Rozan

The Most Southern Place on Earth: that’s what they call the Mississippi Delta. It’s not a place Lydia Chin, an American-born Chinese private detective from Chinatown, NYC, ever thought she’d have reason to go. But when her mother tells her a cousin Lydia didn’t know she had is in jail in Clarksdale, Mississippi—and that Lydia has to rush down south and get him out—Lydia finds herself rolling down Highway 61 with Bill Smith, her partner, behind the wheel.

From the river levees to the refinement of Oxford, from old cotton gins to new computer scams, Lydia soon finds that nothing in Mississippi is as she expected it to be. Including her cousin’s legal troubles—or possibly even his innocence. Can she uncover the truth in a place more foreign to her than any she’s ever seen – Goodreads

As you may have read, I am half-Chinese and that is one of the reasons why I want to read this book. This year, I watched a lot of Chinese detective dramas so this book easily made its way to my list. I’m curious about how the culture translates itself into these novels so I’m definitely looking forward to reading this.

How About You?

Did any of your Most Anticipated 2019 Releases make it to my list? What books are you looking forward to next year? Share them with me below and let’s talk all about it!